


Why go home?

by Melime



Category: Atlantis (UK TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mental Institution, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-01
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-01-06 23:29:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 10,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1112787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Melime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason suffers from delusions that lead him to believe that his fate lays in the lost city of Atlantis, causing his mother to commit him to a psychiatric hospital. There he meets a young man who claims to be the reincarnation of Pythagoras. But not everything is what it seems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Why go home?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1112785) by [Melime GreenLeaf (Melime)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Melime%20GreenLeaf). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somewhat inspired by Pearl Jam's Why Go song.

Jason was dragged into a room screaming. They didn’t understand, they didn’t know what was happening. Did any of these people realize the importance of his destiny? He needed to go back home, go back to Atlantis. But his mother didn’t understand him, she forced him to go there, she deceived him, she left him there was abandoned. He was tossed in a bed and, under the effect of strong sedation, felt sleep coming. He turned his head to the side. Here, scratched in the cheap ink was a message: you are not alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny start, but this will be a long story (I'm not yet sure how long). I hope you enjoy it. Also, now I have two wips, I didn't plan that very well.


	2. The room's walls

When he woke up, his head felt heavy. He hated that feeling, the hangover that this type of medication caused. It was part of the reason why he stopped with his meds. That and because he obviously didn’t need them. His mother couldn’t understand, but Jason knew that his place was in Atlantis. His memories were vague and fragmented, but the feeling of belonging that accompanied them left him no doubt.

After a couple of hours, he decided it wasn’t worth the trouble waiting to get a little better, so he stood up to look around the room. It wasn’t just the wall beside the bed that had writings, but the whole room. Part had been written scraping the paint, and part with what looked like chalk or crayon. Some of the things Jason couldn’t understand. There was a wall covered with long passages in Greek, and one with various mathematical formulas.

A whole wall was dedicated to mathematics, with intricate designs of intersecting triangles and squares, and various formulas. Jason glanced through some trying to figure out what they were.

b² + a² = xc +yc = (x+y)*c = c*c = c²  
c² = (a - b)² + 2ab  
c² = a² - 2ab + b² + 2ab  
c² = a² + b²  
sign (α + β - γ) = sign (a² + b² - c²)  
sign (t) = -1 for t 0  
If γ = p/2, then a² + b² = c²

After a few minutes analyzing the formulas, he realized that all of them were about the same thing. The wall was covered with at least a hundred mathematical proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem.

Whomever had used the room before, could really understand math and spoke Greek. The side of the window was covered in poetry, but he read several before recognizing any. Most spoke of love, and the only thing he recognized was fragments of Sappho.

Love, that invincible being, sweet and sublime  
that releases the members, again rescues me.  
It shakes my spirit as the avalanche  
shakes lot below the slopes. Fight  
against love is impossible, because as a  
child makes to see her mother, fly for him.  
My soul is divided: something stops it here,  
but something tells it to in love live...

Jason updated his mental list: mathematician versed in Greek and Ancient Greek poetry. But the wall beside the bed was the most interesting. It was covered by simple English sentences.

"You are not alone."

"Don’t let him do believe you're crazy."

"There is no reality, only perception. What you perceive is your reality, don’t let them take it."

"There's always a way out."

"Your mind is the only place where they can’t control you, don’t be convinced otherwise."

All messages were similar, but the one that most affected him was written over several others: "Where are you? Why didn’t you come with me? Maybe in the next incarnation..." Getting closer, he realized that his fear was real, the message was definitely written with blood.

A mathematician with extensive knowledge of Greek and Ancient Greek poetry, in love, suicidal. Did the room become vacant because the previous occupant had committed suicide? He felt a tightness in his chest. For some reason, he didn’t want the previous occupant of that room to be dead.

However, he didn’t have much time to think about it because he was soon called to group therapy. That would be interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this chapter was also kind of small. But now I'm finished with the stablishing the setting stage and in the next chapter we'll have more characters and a bit of interaction between them. Who was already reading before may have noticed that I added some tags. It's because I haven't decided everything that will happen, but I have an ending in mind. Found it strange that this hospital leaves the walls in this state and takes newcomers to group therapy before being evaluated individually? There's a reason for that, but shush spoilers. Oh, and as Jason guessed, the formulas are some possible proofs of the Pythagoras' theorem (that make more sense with the pictures, but patience) and the poetry is Sappho's.


	3. The other patients

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long time, no update, so I made one a little bit bigger to compensate. I'll try to update more often, but there's almost zero chance the next will come before the weekend. Don't even tell me that this is not how a hospital works, I'm well aware and this is intentional as shown by Jason's clues.

The group only had four people, counting him. That seemed a bit small for a large institution. It was the first opportunity that Jason had to be in contact with other patients. He found it weird that such a large establishment would separate the patients in such small groups, but everything about the place seemed so very strange. It was giving out the feeling of being off somehow, but he didn’t know exactly what gave him that impression, so he pushed away those thoughts. He turned his attention to the patients to distract himself. At his right side there was an older man, a little overweight, who kept turning a worried look to the woman who was on Jason’s left. Or at least he figured that person was a woman, it was hard to tell because of the clothes she was wearing, especially the big hoody; she had both legs on the chair and buried her face against her knees. Beside her was another woman, and for a moment Jason thought she was as beautiful as a mythological princess, but he pushed that completely meaningless thought. There was another chair directly in front of him, but it was empty.

None of them seemed to be a therapist, and he thought there should be one in the group, perhaps that was why there was a vacant chair. On second thought, he also didn’t remember who called him, it was like...

"You're new here." The man beside him said, interrupting his thoughts. "Welcome. I’m Hercules." He reached out his hand to greet him.

"Jason." And shook his hand. "I just got here."

"So it was you, and I thought I heard someone screaming in Pyth’s room." Seeing that Jason had blushed slightly, embarrassed, he added. "The first night is the worst, it’s always like that. No need to worry, everyone here made a scandal the first night, except for the princess over there, but she's always been the type that maintains her dignity. Things aren’t so bad after you get used to it."

"Hercules, don’t let anyone hear you calling me that, you know how they get." The beautiful woman warned. "I'm Ariadne, and this one here is Medusa."

Jason laughed. "Hercules, Ariadne and Medusa? You can’t possibly be serious."

"This is not a joke, I wish it was. I'm cursed, anyone that looks at me turns to stone." Medusa finally said, still not looking up.

"So is that why you're here?"

"Hey! Don’t talk to her like that!" Hercules complained. "Medusa is a lovely girl, who doesn’t deserve such fate. I won’t let you treat her like all the staff here does."

Jason raised his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry, Medusa, it was a cruel thing to say. Not something someone worthy of being a hero would say, so maybe my mother is right."

When he said that, he was taken again by the feeling that something was off. When he concentrated, the only image he had of his mother was her taking him there. His thoughts were interrupted by a question.

"You mean you're a hero? What kind? Hercules keeps saying he's one too, but I suspect that he’s just trying to win Medusa’s heart."

Jason shrugged. "I can’t say exactly, but I feel I have a great destiny, something very important that needs to be done, and I shouldn’t be here. But whenever I try to think about it, I find nothing, or something just distracts me. It's almost as if someone had put a lock on my mind, but if I say that you won’t believe me, will you?"

"I've seen stranger things. Pyth once managed to make a bomb using only things he found in the kitchen, that boy is a genius." Hercules commented.

It was the second time he heard that name, that probably belonged to the person who caught his attention. "You had said that name before, he was in the room where I am. What happened to him?"

Hercules looked down without answering. For a long time, they all remained silent. It was Medusa who finally spoke. "We don’t know, he was taken to the infirmary the night before last, and we didn’t see him since that. It’s weird that they placed you in that room, unless something happened..."

Jason felt a stab in the chest with her words, despite not knowing why. Neither did he knew that person nor had any reason to be sad, but he still felt his chest tighten strongly. He needed to know what had happened to Pyth, and even more, he needed him to be ok. And that made even less sense.

"I'm sure he's fine, Medusa, you know Pyth. That kid may seem tinny and weak, but he’s a survivor like the rest of us." Hercules tried to comfort her, even if he didn’t completely believe in his own words.

Trying to find a way to change the subject, Jason finally remembered one of the things that seemed wrong about this whole situation. "Shouldn’t we have a therapist here? It's been a while since they called me to group therapy, but if we are all patients.."

Medusa didn’t move, still keeping her head firmly hidden, but Ariadne and Hercules turned to him confused.

"I’m sorry?" Ariadne asked. "We always do things this way, we gather here and talk about our problems, and then go back to our rooms, or the living room."

This further increased Jason’s suspicions, what kind of hospital doesn’t provide a professional for these sessions? "So how do you know when it ends? When can I return to my room?"

Hercules shrugged. "When you want to, attending is kind of required, but otherwise nothing is too regulated. If you want you can leave, you should still be dizzy because of the cocktail they use to knock us out."

Jason stood up. "So if you don’t mind, I'll go back now. I'll see you later."

He had every intention of thinking about what was happening, and finding out exactly what was wrong with the place, but once he leaned his head on the pillow, he fell asleep. Hercules had to be right, it was probably a reminiscent effect of the meds. After all, he wasn’t paranoid enough to imagine that something was actively trying to prevent him from thinking about what was happening there.


	4. Pyth

The sun showered his face, but he didn’t want to wake up just yet. When he woke up, he would have a lot to do, but he didn’t want to ruin the moment. Everything was perfect and if he woke the world would go back to how it was before. Pyth slept peacefully beside him, and Jason felt a strange urge to grab him in his arms and not let go. He feared that if let go, he would lose him forever. He didn’t want to open his eyes, didn’t want for this moment to end, didn’t want to lose...

\-----

Jason woke up with the feeling of having forgotten a good dream. Try as he might remember, the memories seemed to be increasingly slipping through his fingers. The weight of the sensation of the memories that weren’t there was such that at first he didn’t realize that there was something different with his room. In his sleep, a second bed was placed on the opposite side of the room. He ignored the fact that this was done without him waking up, he could worry about that later. His new roommate seemed so small and fragile that aroused in him a certain overprotective instinct; he was sleeping in the fetal position, hugging his body, his face almost completely hidden.

He didn’t know how long he had been watching the other when he began to awaken. Jason barely had time to think about how lovely it was the way his eyelids quivered slightly before opening, because as soon as he saw him, the other jumped, leaning his back against the wall and bending the legs in front of him. He was scared.

"Who are you?" His voice was shaky and low.

Jason sat cross-legged on the bed. "Jason, I came here yesterday, or was it the day before yesterday? It's hard to get a sense of time here. You must be Pyth, your friends spoke of you, they were concerned."

Pyth squinted in suspicion. "They say this isn’t my real name, they try to convince me that I'm someone else. What do you believe?"

"By them you mean the hospital staff? Or your family? I believe I have something very important to do and couldn’t be here. I need to save someone, but I don’t remember who. I have an important destiny, too much so to ignore it. Honestly, could you tell me you believe in just about anything and I would have no moral to say I don’t believe you."

Pyth blushed slightly and turned away. His lips parted and then he closed them, as if he had given up saying something. They stared at each other for long moments before Pyth decided to break the silence. "I suppose, people who work here, but I’m not sure, all I know is that someone is trying to convince me that what I know real isn’t such. I have these memories of another life, they are vague and fogy, but I know they are mine. Perhaps it was a past life or something, but I remember living in an ancient city, my name was Pythagoras and I had someone who was very important to me. Does that make any sense?"

"As much my story, but I wonder if that’s worth anything. Why were you not in the room when I arrived? There was blood on the wall, I was worried that whoever was in this room before me had been hurt.

"Ah." Pyth blushed slightly. "Do you see all that’s written on the walls? I started writing on my second day here. Eventually I wrote so much that my fingers started to bleed, and the I just kept on writing. That's why they took me, to calm me down a little. So there’s no need to worry, I wasn’t trying to hurt myself or anything like that. I was just a little too obsessed with my past life."

Jason wondered if he could trust what he was saying, as it didn’t seem a very likely story, but he didn’t want to pressure the other. "And how long have you been here?"

Pyth stopped to think for a long time. "A week? Maybe a little more, maybe a little less. I'm not sure, time is kind of weird in this place. Not so long ago, but I can’t remember how I got here or how things were before. All my memories are so nebulous, both of my past in this life and that of the past life. But I don’t think much about it."

Jason was surprised by that description, but somehow it was also how he felt. Time seemed to be very wrong there. "Who brought you here?"

Pyth frowned. "I think ... I don’t remember? It’s strange, I hadn’t thought about it before. I don’t usually think much about how things were before I came here. The therapist told me it's better this way. And you?"

Jason made a mental note to ask the others about this therapist, because this didn’t seem a very professional way of treating a patient with obvious memory problems. In fact, so far, nothing about this institution seemed like the way he imagined that a real institution should be. It was closer to a horror film institution or something, something for television and not real.

"My mother brought me. She tried to convince me to forget this heroic destiny story, and when I refused she said I would have to spend the rest of my life here."

"I'm sorry. It must have been hard to have to come here at the hands of your mother."

Jason shrugged. "Not so much, we weren’t so close. She had left my father and me long ago, when I was so small that I barely even remember here. But now he disappeared, and after a while met her again." The information flowed, things that he didn’t even remember knowing.

They spent the next few moments talking as if it was the most natural thing in the world. They passed from one subject to another until they weren’t talking about anything, but neither seemed willing to stop, it was as if both were desperate for each other's presence.

Although they had just met, it was very easy to talk to Pyth. It was as if they were good friends who had been without contact for a long time, and now needed a few moments of estrangement between each other before returning to what they were before. Suddenly, Jason found himself wondering if maybe Pyth wasn’t right about his idea that he had had a past life, and if so, if perhaps they wouldn’t have known each other in that other life.

"Do you think we've met before?" The words escaped his lips before Jason could stop himself.

Pyth blushed to the tips of his ears, and Jason again had the impression that he was hiding something, but then he was surprised by a pervasive thought that the other was very cute embarrassed that way. "H-how so? What do you mean by that?"

"I don’t know. I just have this feeling that this isn’t the first time we’ve talked. We may have known each other in a past life or something." Jason was smiling, but Pyth still looked nervous.

Pyth squinted. "Are you mocking me?" His voice denounced the betrayal he felt.

"What? No! Of course not, I'm serious. Is it so hard to believe? Maybe I'm the reincarnation of some ancient hero, and we have known each other in that time. I don’t know, it was just an idea."

Jason realized that was the wrong thing to say by how Pyth’s expression closed.

Pyth got up from the bed. "I guess I'll see how the others are, I haven’t seen them in two days and they should be concerned after the way I was taken from the room." With these words, he left the room, leaving Jason alone.

It was only then that Jason realized that the sun was high in the sky. It was too soon to be the same day he met the other patients, so he imagined that it was already the next day. Jason frowned. This meant that he was awaken the day before for less than an hour, but he didn’t feel any of the effects usually related to excess sleep. He made a mental note of it as one more of the strange things that were happening there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, so sorry for the delay! Pyth is finally here, I hope you liked this chapter. I shied away from Pyth's suicide attempt. Or did I? Anyway, I didn't want to hurt him too much. And I wanted to establish very clearly that this isn't a normal hospital. As I said in a reply to a comment, I plan for this to have ten chapters, being the last one a short epilogue.


	5. The hospital

Jason decided to do a little exploring of the hospital, taking advantage of the fact that Pyth had left the room, indicating that they had some freedom to walk around. It was scary to think that this was his third day there and he still didn’t know anything about the place. He didn’t remember his mother having told him anything about the place where she was taking him. It was strange to think about how many things escaped his memory. He couldn’t remember much past the time he decided to go look for his father. He didn’t even remember if they had met again.

He left the room, which was at the end of a corridor. There was another door in front of it, and two others, one on the side of each of them, and another between them ending the corridor. That last door was partially open, revealing that it was a bathroom. The other three were closed and, imagining them to be other rooms, he decided not to disturb the occupants. He followed the hallway and went back to the room where he that group therapy the day before. It was a relatively small, empty room, something he hadn’t noticed the first time, and had only three doors: the small one to the hall, double doors with windows to another hallway, and a sliding door.

Of the patients he had met the day before, two were there, Hercules and Ariadne. The first was watching tv in an old three-places couch that was in a corner of the room, and the tv in front of him was an old tube device, which made the situation even stranger. Ariadne was sitting in front of the sliding door, which was made of glass and overlooked the courtyard, and she had a tripod and a screen where she was painting the courtyard garden. Neither reacted to his presence.

As Ariadne appeared to be more concentrated, he went to talk to Hercules first. Because of this, he sat down beside him on the couch.

"Uhm, hello. Hercules, right? Do you know what time it is?" It wasn’t the best way to start a conversation, but it was the best he could think of.

"…morning time? Lunch has not yet arrived, so it must be morning. Medusa never leaves her room before lunch."

Jason frowned, this wasn’t the answer he was looking for, and was another indication that the patients’ time notion was severely impaired. He looked around and found no clock, it was something else he would have to investigate.

“You know, yesterday I fell asleep right after therapy, and I only woke up a little while ago. I wanted to have an idea of how long I slept, because I think I should be feeling worse than I am, I never liked too much sleep, always gives me a migraine." He decided that changing the subject would be wiser.

"It wasn’t so long ago, it was late when you left, Ariadne and me played some pool, I read a bit with the Medusa, then went to sleep."

"What do you mean? But then I must have woken up too late yesterday! I haven’t stayed up much more than an hour."

Now Hercules was really confused. "Late? I don’t think so. We had just gotten there. Medusa always leaves the room earlier on therapy days."

It was the second time that a patient appeared to have temporal disorientation, and bells were going off in Jason's mind. Surely there was something very wrong with this place. A secondary thought came to mind. "For how long have you been here, Hercules?"

"Uhm, a week? Something like that? I'm not sure, but not much more than that. I think that Medusa and Ariadne are here longer."

"And Pyth? He came here before or after you? Do you remember who brought you here? Who brought him? Where is he now?"

Hercules frowned. "I think we arrived at about the same time. I don’t know who brought me, but I have the impression that it was the queen. But that would be ridiculous, I'm not so deluded as to think that the Queen of the United Kingdom would care about me at this point, so I don’t know who actually dumped me here. And the last time I saw Pyth he was going to the yard."

Jason decided he would need to investigate further. "Good. It was nice talking to you. See you later." He got up from the couch and headed toward the yard, but decided to talk to Ariadne on the way.

"Hey, you said your name was Ariadne, didn’t you? I hope I'm not bothering you, but Hercules said you and Medusa are here longer than him, so I was wondering if you remember anything from when he and Pyth arrived or who brought them here?"

Ariadne dropped the brush. The screen was huge, it was just a few centimeters from the ground and she would still need to get up to reach the top, but only a small part of the work had been completed, it was certainly a project that would require many days. "I think Medusa has been here even longer than me, but let’s see... Hercules arrived late in the afternoon, I think it was more or less a week ago, but I don’t remember who brought him here. Pyth arrived that night, I was already in bed so I didn’t see who brought him, but he came screaming like you. He was calling for someone, but I couldn’t recognize the name. Why do you want to know?"

"I don’t know exactly, I was just thinking about some strange things, if I have a more concrete suspicion I'll let you know. Oh, another thing, if not too much intrusion, do you know who brought you here and how long ago that was?"

"My stepmother. I think she always wanted to get rid of me, and when my father fell ill, she had the perfect opportunity. It was about two weeks ago."

That was the only person besides him that remembered for sure who was responsible for their arrival there, and in both cases the culprit was a relative. It certainly seemed something worthy of investigation, he would also need to ask Medusa.

"Thank you, I won’t keep bothering you, see you later." It was time to look for Pyth again.

Pyth was in the yard, looking carefully at two different heighted stakes driven into the ground and their shadows. The sun seemed lower than Jason had expected, almost setting, but wouldn’t worry about that right now. Most disturbing was the way that seeing Pyth made him feel, it was as if he had been stolen of a part of his life and Pyth was somehow related to what was lost. It was such a specific and unusual feeling that he couldn’t help feeling a little disturbed.

"Pyth, I’m sorry to have upset you with what I said before. I didn’t mean to mock you, I was serious."

Pyth rose. "It’s late, we can talk about that tomorrow, now we have to go back inside."

Jason frowned. "What do you mean? We haven’t even had lunch!" It was only then that he realized that it was past sunset.

Pyth looked at him as if he'd just say that the sky was green with red polka dots. "Lunchtime passed a long time ago, it's night." And with that he went back inside.

Jason was even more intrigued by what was going on there. Either he was in a much worse state than he had imagined and couldn’t rely on his own perception, or some unknown force was working there and doing things he didn’t think were possible. He would have to continue his investigation as soon as possible, but for now he stood up and went after Pyth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I think it's painfully clear where I'm going with this now, but I hope it's at least fun. I think my original idea had something to do with the others being there for months or years before Jason, but then I had another idea I thought that made more sense.


	6. Nightmares

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> List of possible triggers at the end, since this chapter is a bit heavy. Some of you may want to check that before reading.

When he arrived at the room, Pyth was asleep, or at least he was pretending to be asleep, Jason wasn’t sure of anything anymore. The others seemed to be asleep, and he didn’t know how long it had taken him to get there, or even if time as he understood it mattered in this case. He even thought of taking the night to explore the place, but he was exhausted, he couldn’t understand, because he couldn’t have spent more than a few hours awake. He laid down and fell asleep almost immediately, as had happened the night before.

\---

He woke up at what he imagined was the middle of the night, but he had no way of knowing how much time had passed. For a moment, he didn’t know what had awaken him until he realized a small noise coming from the next bed. Pyth was crying quietly, struggling to remain silent, and Jason hesitated for a moment.

"Pyth, are you okay?" His voice was more concerned than he imagined, and he couldn’t understand the pain that seeing the other suffer made him feel.

Pyth almost jumped, and quickly rubbed his eyes. "J-Jason? Sorry, I didn’t mean to awaken you. You can go back to sleep, it's fine."

Jason lying on his side, facing the other. "Can you tell me what's going on, I swear I won’t judge you for anything."

Pyth hesitated, in conflict with the fear of being judged and the desire to vent. The second one won. "No need to worry, this happens all the time. I have a terrible recurring nightmare every night. It's always the same, I'm used to it, in a moment I’ll be able to go back to sleep. I will try to be quiet so I don’t get in your way again."

"It's not bothering me, don’t worry about it. Would you like to tell me what’s your nightmare about? Don’t feel obligated if you don’t want to, but I would like to know."

"It's nonsense, I don’t know why it affects me so much. I think it was the way I died, though, it’s the clearest memory I have of that past life. It's always the same thing. I'm coming home, and there's a man lying on the ground. I know him, but I can’t see his face. I run towards him and try to see how he is, but I’m attacked, please don’t laugh, by a witch. The worst part, which always makes me cry, is that I'm sure someone will save me, someone I love, but that person never comes, she casts her spell on me and I die. I don’t even remember who that person was, but having been abandoned in this way hurts more than anything else. "

"I'm sorry, that must have been awful to go through. Was that what you didn’t want to tell me before? That you thought someone would come to save you?"

Jason tried not to think about how intimate the situation was. Both were laying, facing each other, the space between the two beds was minimal, and yet Jason couldn’t help but think they had already been closer. He wanted to understand what these feelings he had towards Pyth meant, but didn’t know how he could investigate without scaring the other again. 'I think I'm in love with you' wasn’t the kind of thing that could be said to someone he had just met that morning.

"I thought you would mock me. It’s not like I think someone will come rescue me from here or something, but I can’t shake the feeling that someone that should have saved me left me here. I know it's silly, if there really was someone like that in my life, I'd remember. I think I may be mixing that past life with this one or something."

"I don’t think it’s silly. I can understand that. In fact, I'm beginning to think I also forgot someone very important to me."

They were silent for a moment, looking at each other, both wanting to say more, but not knowing how. When Pyth finally gathered the courage to speak, his voice was so low, weak that Jason barely heard him.

"Can I sleep with you?"

For a second, Jason was sure he had to have heard wrong. Pyth certainly couldn’t have said what he thought he had heard. "What?"

Pyth blushed. "I mean, in your bed, because of nightmares. Never mind, it was a dumb idea. You don’t need to do this, I just thought..."

Jason moved closer to the wall and lifted the blanket. "Come on, it won’t bother me." Since Pyth hesitated, Jason patted the empty space and smiled to encourage him.

Pyth seemed suspicious, but got up from his bed. The way he approached the bed reminded Jason of a wild animal, a prey that cautiously approached a stream, ready to be attacked at any time. Seeing him like that made Jason want to hold him tight against his chest as if he could protect him from any danger, but the result that most certainly accomplish would be to lead Pyth away from him, so he had to control himself.

Pyth tried not to lay too close, but the size of the bed made it impossible. With his head on the pillow, he could feel Jason’s breath of Jason against him. They were so close that he would only need a slight movement to capture the other’s lips. Pyth cursed himself for the thought, Jason was being generous and helping him, he couldn’t take advantage of him that way. Pyth regretted his idea, he couldn’t sleep like this. He tried to pull away a bit and lost his balance.

Jason passed a hand around his waist and pulled him close, preventing him from falling. "Careful. The bed is too small, let me help you." Jason turned slightly and pulled Pyth towards his chest. This way, their faces weren’t so close; however, there was more contact between their bodies, so they could be comfortable without the risk of falling.

In this position, Pyth could clearly see the writing on the wall. Jason was trusting him, but he didn’t deserve that trust.

"I lied," Pyth said after several moments in silence, "when we were talking earlier." He hadn’t planned to reveal that, but the words escaped his lips before he could stop himself.

Jason put his hand on the curly hair, trying to offer some comfort. "It's all right. Do you want to tell me the truth now?"

Since he was resting on his chest, Pyth could hear Jason’s heart, and knew he wasn’t as calm as wanted to appear.

Pyth sighed. "I was afraid you would judge me, and didn’t want others to know what really happened, they'd be too worried. When you asked what happened for them to get me out of the room, I was nervous and I ended up lying. I'm sorry. The truth is that I could no longer stand this place. I was desperate. It may seem like I’m exaggerating, because I'm not here for all that long, but I felt as if my entire life revolved around this place. I had been thinking that way since I got here, but that night was a little different. When I woke up, I was scratching the wall with such intensity that my fingers were bleeding. I don’t remember having written anything, but it must have happened at that moment, I think was having a panic attack or something."

Jason hugged him harder against his chest, as if he could protect Pyth from his past. "I know how you feel. I may not be able to change the situation we're in, but if there's anything, anything I can do to help you... Please let me do what I can for you."

It wasn’t the reaction that Pyth expected, and it was more reason why he couldn’t leave things as they were. It would be as bad as keeping lying, or even worse. "Not only that, it's worse than you think, I'm worse than you think. I was desperate, didn’t know what to do. All I could think about was how someone so important to me had left me like that, I don’t know if what I see in these dreams is real, but I feel like I've lost everything that was important in my life. So I... I tied the sheets to the doorknob and tried to kill myself as soon as I had woken up from one of these nightmares, before I had a chance to think straight. There it is, the whole truth. Now you can hate me, or think I'm pathetic or anything like that, but I didn’t want to keep hiding the truth from you."

Jason moved his hand from Pyth’s hair to his chin, lifting his face and forcing Pyth to look at him. "Pyth, I know you don’t know me well enough to trust me, but please, let me protect you. I won’t let you be abandoned like before, I want my destiny to be to protect you. I will never think less of you, no matter what happens, but I’ll keep you safe from everything, so please, just concentrate on getting better. I won’t let anyone else hurt you, so try not to do it yourself. I can’t save you, but I’ll do everything to ensure that you’ll be able to save yourself."

Jason had a mission. He needed to find out what was going on and needed to protect Pyth. Now he was sure that this was his destiny.

Pyth wanted to believe in what Jason was saying, and when they were together like this, it was almost seemed possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Triggers in this chapter: suicide mention, self-harm mention, and self-deprecating feelings regarding that.
> 
> So in the end I couldn't not do my original idea, sorry about that Pyth. I hope this doesn't feel too hushed, my original idea was shorter chapters but a lot more of them, but then I got this idea of the temporal displacement and I couldn't stop thinking about it.


	7. The doors

When he woke up, Pyth wasn’t there. He didn’t know how for long he was asleep, but he had realized that it didn’t mean much there. After the previous night’s realization that he wanted to protect Pyth, that place seemed even more wrong. He didn’t know exactly how describe the feeling that caused on him. It was like knowing something was wrong in a dream, but not being able to pinpoint what it was until waking up.

There was one place that Jason hadn’t explored yet, the doors that seemed to lead to another hallway. He thought that whoever was managing that place was hiding behind them. His most plausible theory so far was that they were being held captive by some unknown person, who was using drugs to alter their perception and manipulate their memories. He had no idea who could be that person, he didn’t know if he could rely on the memories of his mother, and he couldn’t even begin to imagine how this system would work. It seemed too big, too elaborate for a kidnapping. Somehow, he knew he could trust the people who were there with him, that was his only certainty.

Everyone else was in the main room, seated in a circle, and there was an empty chair. It was the behavior of therapy day, but if it was then why was he not...

"Jason!" Pyth's face lighted up. "Why didn’t you come when they called us? I was getting worried, I thought about going back to wake you."

"Called me? Nobody called me. And now I’m thinking about it, I don’t remember anyone calling me last time, I just remember being called. Do any of you remember who called us?"

The other four stared silently, confusion clear in their eyes. It was Pyth who replied, "Well, not exactly, but someone must have called us. Someone always calls us."

"And doctors? Do any of you remember doctors? Or nurses, employees, anything? Does anyone remember seeing anyone else here other than the five of us?" Jason knew he had found an important clue, he couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed before that there was no one there.

"Of course we have doctors, Jason, we are in a hospital." Ariadne’s voice was confident, but her expression betrayed her insecurity.

"Yes, a hospital needs doctors, but do you remember having seen any? Or someone bringing food? Do you remember the last time you ate? Something is happening here, and it’s changing our perception. I don’t know why, but I'm starting to see things more clearly."

"Stop it, Jason. Stop with this conspiracy idea. You’ll only harm everyone here. At first, we all tried to figure out what was going on here, but eventually we had to accept that now this is our place. We'll never get out of here, so why make our lives harder? Accept things as they are, because they could be much worse." Medusa's words surprised everyone, and looking into her eyes, Jason couldn’t help but wonder if the determination there didn’t hide the pain of someone who knew more than they were revealing.

"Medusa, this isn’t a hospital. I’ve never been more sure of this than now. We need to find out who's keeping us here, because I'm sure that this person doesn’t have good intentions. We can’t stay here, relying on the good will of someone who keeps us prisoners. You don’t have to help me, but I'll find out what's going on." He didn’t say that he was doing it because he had promised to protect Pyth, but he hoped that the other knew it. Before, he already sought to understand the place, but now his efforts were tempered with a certain urgency.

It was an argument that neither of them could win. Jason couldn’t understand Medusa's motivations, but he had to accept that she didn’t want to help. Jason sighed, maybe he would have to save the all alone. If he really was the hero he thought he was, maybe that was his destiny, his purpose in that place. Maybe he was there to ensure that they all would be saved. He wouldn’t let those who captured them get away with this crime.

He returned to his original plan. Without saying a word to the others, he headed for the double doors to the other corridor. Until he came near them, he hadn’t noticed what seemed so strange about them. The other corridor stretched beyond the reach of his vision, no doors on either side; more than that, there were no mark at any point of the walls, ceiling, or floor. He couldn’t calculate the exact size of the hall, but it was easily over three hundred meters. This could only indicate one of two things: either that installation was huge, or this was another example of altered perception. He didn’t feel drugged, but he wasn’t sure he would be able to tell if he was. There was no point in wasting time with this, the only way he could think of finding out what was going on was to open these doors.

They weren’t locked, which surprised him so much that for a moment he was paralyzed. What if he was wrong? What if this was a hospital like any other? What if there was a simpler explanation for their perceived problems? He began to doubt his old certainties, perhaps Medusa was right. Suddenly, he was no longer sure of anything he had discovered so far. The doubt was paralyzing, he couldn’t open the doors. Maybe he should give it, it might be better to accept his situation, maybe he...

"Jason, what are you doing?"

Pyth’s hand on his shoulder pulled him from the circular thoughts he was trapped in. His voice and expression were overflowed with concern. Jason didn’t know for how long he stood there with his hands on the doors, but it was as if he was under a spell that was broken by Pyth. Could it be that those who had placed them there had also placed some form of protection in those doors that was stronger than any locks? He couldn’t imagine it would be possible to cause a psychological effect such as this, but he couldn’t imagine another solution.

"I'll find out who's behind this, Pyth. Stay here, I'll come back for you as soon as I find out what's going on."

He had no choice, he had to find a way to save Pyth, now he was more sure than ever that this was his mission. Knowing Pyth loved someone else didn’t make it less so. He didn’t understand his feelings, but he certainly didn’t need to see them reciprocated. Saving someone wasn’t about getting something, it was an act of truly selfless heroism. It wasn’t jealousy that made him want that Pyth never found that person again, but a sincere desire that he found someone who wouldn’t abandon him even if that somebody wasn’t Jason.

He opened the doors and at that moment, all his suspicions were confirmed. They really weren’t in a hospital. He was surrounded by white, and didn’t feel the influence of gravity. He couldn’t find the floor, and everywhere he looked, he saw only white. It was as if the world didn’t exist beyond those doors. All that existed was that room, the courtyard, the hallway, four bedrooms, and bathroom. Beyond those doors, there was only an endless void. The emptiness seemed to expand beyond the space around and inside his body. White light filled him completely to the point thinking was becoming difficult. The whole world had disappeared, and his own mind seemed to be emptying.

Why had he opened that door? Why was he investigating things? Why did he want to get out? Why couldn’t he accept the way things were? Why was he insisting on disrupting everybody’s lives?

The doubts appeared to be foreign to he, as if coming from outside and penetrating his entire body. Similarly, answers began to emerge, as if someone was planting all the findings directly into his mind.

It was a mistake to open those doors. It didn’t make sense then investigating. It would be better to stay there. He would be at peace if he accepted things as they were. Everything would be fine if only he stopped disturbing everyone else.

He could be at peace, everything would be fine, if only he could accept the answers offered to him.

He couldn’t resist, he became one with the light.


	8. Choices

Jason woke up disoriented and for a moment, he couldn’t remember who he was or where he was. The first memory to return was that of the light, blinding and overwhelming, occupying all his mind and not leaving room for any other thought. He had to fight against it, pushing it away so he could remember the rest, his suspicions, his mission, Pyth…

He called out his name and Pyth came to his side.

“Jason? Are you alright? We were all worried about you.”

“What happened?” Jason asked, sitting in bed. This made his migraine worse, but he ignored the pain, deciding to focus on Pyth.

“You had a convulsion in front of the doors and passed out. The nurses brought you back here and you spent days asleep.”

“Did you see anyone transporting me? Think carefully, did you actually see anyone?”

Pyth furrowed his brows, concentrating. “Not exactly. I think so, but when I think about it, I can’t remember it right. It’s weird, it’s as if this fact was recorded in my mind, but without any actual memory associated with it.”

“Exactly like everything else here. Nothing makes sense, unless someone manipulated our memories and continues to do so.”

“How is this even possible?”

“I don’t know, but I’m not even sure the place we are in is real. I don’t know how it’s possible to do something like this, mas whomever is keeping us here, that person is dangerous, and we need to find a way to escape. The problem is that if this place isn’t real, escaping probably isn’t as easy as opening a door.”

Pyth tried to think about what Jason was suggesting, but it was as if something was keeping him from thinking right. Conclusions were forced in his mind, but he felt as if they weren’t correct, and still, he couldn’t fight against them. “I… I don’t know what to think, Jason, but maybe Medusa is right, maybe we are better off here.”

“Do you really think that, or these ideas just popped inside your head?” Jason asked dryly.

“Why would you ask me such a thing?”

“Because the same thing happened to me. When I touched the doors, I started having doubts that weren’t mine, and when I opened them, it was as if I was being consumed by a light. I thought I was going to stop existing, and several things showed up in my mind, it was difficult to fight against them, but if the same thing is happening to you, you need to fight. If we don’t do anything, we don’t have any way of knowing if we aren’t going to stay trapped here for the rest of our lives.”

“Jason, I can’t, and you need to stop,” Pyth begged. “I’m sure that something extremely bad with happen if you keep going, and I can’t lose you. I don’t care about the person who was supposed to have come to save me, all I care about is you, and I would rather stay trapped here forever than risk losing you. Please, let’s stop this before you get hurt, I won’t be able to bear it if anything happens to you.”

Jason felt his chest tightening when he hear that. Knowing that Pyth also cared about him was comforting, but he didn’t want to make him feel like this. His objective was to protect Pyth, so he couldn’t just give up, but he didn’t want to end up hurting him with this either.

“Pyth, I can’t allow that whomever is doing it continue to do so. We can’t remain at the mercy of someone we don’t even know, whose objectives we don’t even know. And we can’t stay here forever, we have lives to go back to. I can’t remember how my life was before this, not really, I don’t have memories that I can know are real, but I feel that what I did before was important, and that I need to return.”

“Jason,” Pyth begged, holding one of Jason’s hands with both of his, “nothing is worth your life. I would rather spend the rest of my life here with you than go back to whatever I had before, even if I don’t even remember anything about before. Please, couldn’t this just be enough for you? I know you think you are supposed to be a hero, but you can be my hero if you stay here with me. Isn’t this enough?”

Jason closed his eyes. Yes, it was enough, but it wasn’t fair, not to him and not to Pyth. They deserved better than to stay trapped in this place, and they had destinies far too important to be ignored. “Pyth, everything that I want is to stay with you, but I can’t ignore what I need to do. Nothing bad will happen to you or me, I won’t let anything happen. We are going to get out of here, we all are going to get out of here and be fine. I’ll save everybody, and if you want to you can help me, but I’ll do anything possible to keep you safe anyway.”

Pyth sighed. “If this is what you want, I trust you, I trust you with my life.”

Jason smiled, and touched his face. “Then we are in this together. Whomever is keeping us here has no chance against both of us together.”

Suddenly, without even thinking about what he was doing, Pyth leaned forward, and Jason instinctively met him halfway, kissing him. It was everything they were hoping for, and a lot more. There was a certain familiarity to it, as if it was something they had done several times before.

It seemed much more real than everything they lived in that hospital until then, and the rightest decision they had ever made. For a long moment, everything that existed was the two of them, and this was everything that mattered.

When they separated to breath, they kept their foreheads touching, not wanting to break their connection. At that moment, Jason was starting to think that he could spend the rest of his life like this, there with Pyth, without any worry if only he could ignore all those mysteries, and they were so easy to ignore. Keeping his doubts was a constant effort, and it would be so much easier to allow everything to disappear, and concentrate just on Pyth. It was difficult to maintain his conviction when he could have what mattered the most without any risk, but if he really considered himself a hero, it was what he needed to do. One more time, he chose to keep investigating, to get to the bottom of this, to find out what was happening.

And then he remembered everything.


	9. The truth

Jason knew what he had to do, and had brought him to that place. The spell was powerful, but his on ability to repel magic won in the end.

“Pyth, Pythagoras,” he called, holding Pyth’s face between his hands. “Your name is Pythagoras, we live in the city of Atlantis. You are a mathematician, and a genius, the smartest person I know. You are also a hero, brave and loyal, and you saved my life many times, you saved more people than I can count. Please, tell me you remember this. Pyth, please, I love you so much, I need you to remember.”

Pyth closed his eyes, frowning as if the effort of trying to remember was painful. “Jason, what are you talking about?”

“You told me you thought someone had to come save you. This someone is me. You and Hercules are my best friends since I got to Atlantis, and for a while now you have been more than this. Pyth, I’m sorry, I should have arrived sooner, but time here doesn’t happen like the time out there. You had to spend days here waiting for me, but only a few hours passed out there. As soon as I figured out what had happened to us, or yet, as soon as I learnt something was wrong, I went to the Oracle for help in finding a way to bring you back. The spell hit me harder than I was expecting, but now I’m here and I remember everything, I know how to get us out of here.”

Pyth pulled away instinctively. “Jason, none of this makes any sense. How can time pass faster here?”

“The queen of Atlantis, Pasiphae, uses magic. She imprisoned us here to stop us from keep interfering in her plans, but we have to go back. I don’t know what she’s planning now, but the more time we spend here, the greater are the odds that she’ll get what she wants.”

Pyth leaned back in the bed, trying to process what Jason was saying. He still couldn’t remember anything from before getting to this place, at least nothing beyond simple impressions, but he wanted to trust Jason. However, the more he tried to think about it, the more confuse he got, as if a fog was covering his memories.

“Even if that’s true, what can we do?” Pyth asked finally.

Jason got up. “We need to talk to the others. The only way to get out of here is if everyone believes we can and crosses the doors with me. I’ve been here before, when Pasiphae first set the spell that trapped us here, she got us, all at the same time. But since I have a certain protection against magic, I was able to escape the first time, because I remembered who I was and I realized this place wasn’t real. She got this place from my mind, from my memories from before I came to Atlantis, but she only got loose fragments from things I saw on TV, and this is why this place doesn’t work, this is way this place is so weird.”

Pyth didn’t know what to do, but the only certitude he had was that he wanted to trust Jason. “Alright. I believe in you. What do we do now?”

“We need to call the others, now. When night falls, we both will forget this conversation, so we need to leave before that.”

\---

Jason had just finished explaining the situation to the others, and he received the same shocked looks that Pyth had given him. Not only what he was saying was absurd, but the magic that kept that place also wasn’t helping. One of the protections that place had was the capacity to manipulate the minds of people who were trapped there.

“Jason, what you are saying doesn’t make any sense,” said Ariadne. “You must still be confused because of the convulsions you had yesterday.”

“Yeah, this whole witchcraft thing doesn’t exist,” said Hercules.

“I also didn’t want to believe, but you need to know that there’s something wrong with this place. That certain things don’t make sense, but that when we stop to think about them, something happens and suddenly that idea disappears and we are thinking about something else. Since Jason told me what was happening, I keep feeling that we shouldn’t be here, and if you give us the benefit of the doubt, then you’ll also realize that,” Pyth said. He was starting to remember, the flashes of his life in Atlantis were stronger and stronger. Now he was sure that Jason was right.

Jason squeezed his hand reassuringly and smiled. Now he was sure that Pyth was by his side, and that they could leave that place, but they also needed their friends, they couldn’t leave the others behind.

Only Medusa was quiet, hiding her face, and rocking her body back and forth.

“I just can’t understand how can this be possible,” said Ariadne.

“I’m also not sure, all I know is that this is the work of a powerful spell. We don’t have much time, as soon as night falls, we’ll forget everything, and I don’t know how long I’ll need to remember everything again. I don’t know if we’ll have this chance again. If you have even a shadow of a doubt that this is real, please, trust me. If this place is real, nothing will happen when we open those doors, but if it isn’t our real lives await us outside of this place.”

“Stop!” Medusa yelled. “Jason, don’t you understand that it is better in here? The world out there is full of monsters and dangers we don’t need to face. We are safe here. Protected against everything, we can live the rest of our lives here. Here, I’m not… I’m not… I’m not a monster. I don’t want to go back.” She was nearly crying and was shaking, having lost control and finally reveled her secret.

“You… you knew,” said Pyth surprised.

“Not at first,” she said, calmer. “But after Jason vanished for the first time, the spell grew weaker on me. Sometimes everything became clear, and I could see everything that was wrong with this place, but I rather forget. It’s so much easier to forget, and live here in peace. You can also forget, all you have to do is stop thinking about it for a moment and let the spell work, and then everything will be ok again.”

“Medusa, how can you say this?” Jason asked.

“Is it so surprising to you? Here I don’t have to hide, I’m not at risk of killing anyone by accident.”

While the others were too shocked to say anything, Hercules went to her and hugged her. “Medusa, I remember now, I remember what happened to you.” It was true, Medusa’s speech had helped unblock some of his memories. “And I understand that you don’t want to return to your curse, but we need to come back, and I can’t let you here alone. I promise I’ll continue doing everything I can to release you from this curse, but we need to go.”

“Hercules, don’t ask me to do this.”

“I can’t force you to come with us, but I refuse to leave here unless you go with me. I can’t leave you here alone.”

“No, you can’t do this. Atlantis needs you, your friends need you, you need to be the hero you always said you were.”

“No, not without you. You are more important to me than everything else, so either we cross these doors together, or both of us will stay here.”

“Hercules…” She kissed him softly, knowing that one they left that place, that no longer would be possible. “I’m ready, we can go.”


	10. Epilogue

They didn’t face Pasiphae, that would be a challenge for another day. She was powerful, and there wasn’t anything they could use to face her, not now. But the defeat she suffered that day was crushing. Instead, everyone went back to their lives, pretending that nothing had happened, at least for now. Eventually, and that day would come soon, they would do everything to defeat Pasiphae, and they would win, they were sure of that. But now, they needed to gather their strengths, they needed time to deal with everything that had happened, and with the fact that for what seemed like a long time, they couldn’t trust their own minds.

For Jason and Pyth, that meant spending time together. After everything they’ve been through, the only thing they wanted was the company of each other. When they went to sleep that night, none of them talked about it, but both of them feared that everything would disappear as soon as they fell asleep, that this also was only an illusion that would shatter as soon as the day ended, and worse, that they wouldn’t remember anything about it.

When they woke up, it was with a smile on their face because they were still on each other’s arms. The sun hit their faces and the light wind crossed through the window, it was a perfect day, and they didn’t need to be anywhere else. They could spend as long as they wanted there, and they had plan to enjoy that to the max. They were well, they were together, and at that moment, nothing else mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is the end. Thank you so much to everyone that stayed with me for all this time, and I'm sorry it took me to long to finish it. I hope you enjoyed this ending, as this was always where I wanted to finish things.


End file.
